Bec 1Is the ANZ Championship fair?
May 9th 2010 04:35
The second-placed Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic's 12-goal win over the bottom-of-the-ladder Central Pulse yesterday begs the question is the ANZ Championship fair.
In this season, the Pulse have been defeated by much larger margins including the Adelaide Thunderbirds by 35 goals in round five.
We are half way through the season and yet the Magic can only beat the Pulse by 12 goals.
In the ANZ Championship, each Australian team play each other twice in the season and only once against the New Zealand sides.
On the other side of the Tasman, the New Zealand teams play each other twice and the Aussie teams only once.
Does this make a fair competition? In the past two years of the ANZ Championship, the top four positions on the ladder have been dominated by Australian teams.
Australian teams have a harder road into the finals than New Zealand teams since the Aussie sides are stronger.
For instance, if you look at the New Zealand's Central Pulse, they've been on the bottom of the ladder so far for three seasons of the ANZ Championship. They've won one game in these three years. The other four New Zealand teams get to play them twice each season, giving them an easy four points. The Magic played shocking yesterday but were still able to take the win. If they played the same way against any of the Australian teams, you would expect the Australian team to win. The Melbourne Vixens don't come up against the Central Pulse until the final round of competition. After yesterday's game, the Vixens are only two points behind the Magic on the ladder. If the Vixens had played the Pulse twice this year, you would then expect this result to be different. It would be a similar scenario to the Adelaide Thunderbirds and the Queensland Firebirds who also could make the top four. The Magic have only played an Australian side twice in eight rounds of competiton, in which they lost to the Vixens and only won by five goals to the West Coast Fever, Australia's worst side.
If every team played each other twice, I think you could expect a different top four to make the finals. The Melbourne Vixens, the NSW Swifts, the Adelaide Thunderbirds and the Queensland Firebirds are all strong title contenders but with the Magic having an easier run to the finals, as does other New Zealand teams, you could expect at least one of the better teams to miss out on the finals just because they are from Australia.
I think the time has come where each team plays each other twice to make it fair as well as a longer netball season. We're trying to get more people interested in netball and this would definitely make it the hottest game in town!
In this season, the Pulse have been defeated by much larger margins including the Adelaide Thunderbirds by 35 goals in round five.
We are half way through the season and yet the Magic can only beat the Pulse by 12 goals.
In the ANZ Championship, each Australian team play each other twice in the season and only once against the New Zealand sides.
On the other side of the Tasman, the New Zealand teams play each other twice and the Aussie teams only once.
Australian teams have a harder road into the finals than New Zealand teams since the Aussie sides are stronger.
For instance, if you look at the New Zealand's Central Pulse, they've been on the bottom of the ladder so far for three seasons of the ANZ Championship. They've won one game in these three years. The other four New Zealand teams get to play them twice each season, giving them an easy four points. The Magic played shocking yesterday but were still able to take the win. If they played the same way against any of the Australian teams, you would expect the Australian team to win. The Melbourne Vixens don't come up against the Central Pulse until the final round of competition. After yesterday's game, the Vixens are only two points behind the Magic on the ladder. If the Vixens had played the Pulse twice this year, you would then expect this result to be different. It would be a similar scenario to the Adelaide Thunderbirds and the Queensland Firebirds who also could make the top four. The Magic have only played an Australian side twice in eight rounds of competiton, in which they lost to the Vixens and only won by five goals to the West Coast Fever, Australia's worst side.
I think the time has come where each team plays each other twice to make it fair as well as a longer netball season. We're trying to get more people interested in netball and this would definitely make it the hottest game in town!
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